Alexander Zorychta
Charlottesville, Virginia, United States
6K followers
500+ connections
About
Alex is the founder and Managing Partner of Not Yet Ventures, a firm that helps earliest…
Articles by Alexander
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Book Review: "Lessons My Brothers Taught Me" by Charlie McCarrick
Book Review: "Lessons My Brothers Taught Me" by Charlie McCarrick
By Alexander Zorychta
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From Strangers to Best Friends in 45 Minutes
From Strangers to Best Friends in 45 Minutes
By Alexander Zorychta
Activity
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I have also seen the frequency of refrigerated containers increasing. Fortunately our CargoLabs.org app that allows you to purchase excess cargo…
I have also seen the frequency of refrigerated containers increasing. Fortunately our CargoLabs.org app that allows you to purchase excess cargo…
Liked by Alexander Zorychta
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I'm home on a Friday night with a glass of wine geeking out over a Fortune article I just read about the most underrated leadership skill. What the…
I'm home on a Friday night with a glass of wine geeking out over a Fortune article I just read about the most underrated leadership skill. What the…
Liked by Alexander Zorychta
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We "𝒃𝒓𝒐𝒌𝒆 𝒐𝒖𝒓 𝒑𝒓𝒐𝒄𝒆𝒔𝒔" - and it felt great. Typically, we work in Outcomes. For us, this means - looking at our metrics (KPI Tree)…
We "𝒃𝒓𝒐𝒌𝒆 𝒐𝒖𝒓 𝒑𝒓𝒐𝒄𝒆𝒔𝒔" - and it felt great. Typically, we work in Outcomes. For us, this means - looking at our metrics (KPI Tree)…
Liked by Alexander Zorychta
Experience
Education
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University of Virginia Darden School of Business
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Batten Entrepreneurial Scholarship - Full-Tuition
GMAT: 800 (GRE 339/340 Quant & Verbal, 6/6 Analytical Writing)
Voted "Best Problem Solver" by Negotiations class of 70 peers
Faculty Award for Academic Excellence (GPA in top 15% of class)
Semifinalist, 2020 Rice Business Plan Competition
Winner, 2021 Entrepreneurship Cup Discovery Competition
Winner, 2020 Entrepreneurship Cup Concept Competition
2nd place, 2020 Venture Capital Investment Competition
Second Year…Batten Entrepreneurial Scholarship - Full-Tuition
GMAT: 800 (GRE 339/340 Quant & Verbal, 6/6 Analytical Writing)
Voted "Best Problem Solver" by Negotiations class of 70 peers
Faculty Award for Academic Excellence (GPA in top 15% of class)
Semifinalist, 2020 Rice Business Plan Competition
Winner, 2021 Entrepreneurship Cup Discovery Competition
Winner, 2020 Entrepreneurship Cup Concept Competition
2nd place, 2020 Venture Capital Investment Competition
Second Year Career Coach for 6 First Year students
Entrepreneurship and Venture Capital club -
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Grand Prize, 2012 UVA Entrepreneurship Cup
Co-Captain, iGEM synthetic biology research team
President, Order of Omega
Re-Founder & President, Flying V's rock a cappella
Rituals Chair and Chorister, Beta Theta Pi
Biomedical Engineering Teaching Fellow (Physiology II and Bioelectricity)
French House resident -
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Higher level concentrations in French, English, and Biology.
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President ('08-'09) - French Honor Society
Vice-President ('07-'08) - French Honor Society
Guitar Ensemble
Licenses & Certifications
Volunteer Experience
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Member, Board of Directors
Creative Education Foundation
- Present 1 year 8 months
Education
Finance Committee (2023-2024), External Relations Committee (2023-present)
The mission of the Creative Education Foundation is to spark personal and professional transformation by empowering people with the skill set, tool set, and mindset of deliberate creativity. -
Judge for Rice Business Plan Competition
Rice Alliance for Technology and Entrepreneurship
- Present 1 year 5 months
Economic Empowerment
Best graduate student entrepreneurship competition in the world.
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Coach & Steering Committee member for ACC InVenture Prize
Atlantic Coast Conference
- 3 years 6 months
Economic Empowerment
I coached UVA's team to 2nd, 1st, 1st, and 1st and helped to organize UVA's larger involvement in the ACC InVenture Prize, where each university sends their top student entrepreneur to compete in a live televised competition.
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Collegiate Inventors Competition Judge
National Inventors Hall of Fame
- Present 4 years 5 months
Economic Empowerment
Judge for the 2020 through 2025 competitions.
For over 35 years, CIC has given college students the opportunity to showcase their cutting-edge inventions while representing their colleges and universities on a national level. As a judge, I review applications, which helps determines the set of Finalists that advance to the final round of judging. -
National Young Entrepreneur Pitch Challenge Judge
Young Entrepreneur Institute at University School
- Present 2 years 2 months
Education
Judging video pitch entries of young entrepreneurs (K-12) and providing constructive feedback for 2022 and 2023 competitions.
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CPSI Program Team
Creative Education Foundation
- 2 years 9 months
Education
Carefully selecting the sessions for the Creative Problem Solving Institute conference 2021 to 2023.
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Rituals Advisor
Beta Theta Pi
- Present 7 years 5 months
Education
I advise the Member Education Chair in preparing for and managing the rituals of the brotherhood in order to uphold the key principles of the organization.
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Entrepreneur In Residence
STEAM Discovery Academy
- 1 year 1 month
Education
At STEAM Discovery Academy students learn to think on their feet, evaluate challenges, and experiment their way to solutions. We cultivate a passion for all aspects of STEAM: Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Math and integrate leadership skill development including communication, teamwork, and goal setting to build resilience and self-confidence. Concepts and challenges are presented by combining education and entertainment, allowing students to grow while having fun.
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Board Member
Charlottesville Business Innovation Council (CBIC)
- 10 months
Economic Empowerment
CBIC is a membership-based non-profit with the mission to educate, celebrate and advocate for Charlottesville’s technology community and to accelerate technology innovation and entrepreneurship in the region.
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Entrepreneur Workshop Leader
Community Investment Collaborative
- 1 year 9 months
Economic Empowerment
I lead interactive workshops to teach Stakeholder Interviewing and Competitor Analysis to budding small businesses.
Empowering small business for big change. CIC strengthens the Charlottesville community and contributes to economic development by fueling the success of under-resourced entrepreneurs through education, mentoring, financing, and networking.
https://cicville.org/blog/alex-zorychta-volunteer-profile/ -
International Host
YLAI / Young Leaders of the Americas Initiative
- 1 year 7 months
Economic Empowerment
The Young Leaders of the Americas Initiative (YLAI) builds linkages between young leaders across the hemisphere. YLAI addresses the opportunity gap for youth, especially women, by empowering business and social entrepreneurs with the training, tools, networks and resources they need to transform their societies and contribute more fully to economic development and prosperity, security, human rights and good governance in the hemisphere.
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Alumni Mentor
iGEM Competition
- 3 months
Education
Serving as an external mentor in the pilot iGEM Mentorship Program for the 2015 season that gives student synthetic biology iGEM research teams some extra guidance to help them go through the iGEM process.
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Assistant Scoutmaster
Boy Scouts of America
- 1 year 10 months
Education
Helping young men prepare for a principled life through the achievement of merit badges and the rank of Eagle Scout.
Publications
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Exploration of discriminant validity in divergent thinking tasks: A meta-analysis
Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts
Discriminant validity has been a major concern regarding the indices of divergent thinking (DT). The present study used a meta-analytic approach to understand the nature of the problem by synthesizing the research between 2009 to 2019. Three data sets obtained from 242 different studies were analyzed by adopting a multilevel modeling approach, each consisting of one of the paired correlations between fluency, flexibility, and originality. Overall, the correlation of fluency is stronger with…
Discriminant validity has been a major concern regarding the indices of divergent thinking (DT). The present study used a meta-analytic approach to understand the nature of the problem by synthesizing the research between 2009 to 2019. Three data sets obtained from 242 different studies were analyzed by adopting a multilevel modeling approach, each consisting of one of the paired correlations between fluency, flexibility, and originality. Overall, the correlation of fluency is stronger with flexibility (r = .79, k = 247, m = 178, N = 46,933) than originality (r = .62, k = 465, m = 250, N = 58,656), showing lower discriminant validity with the former compared with the latter. This is the case even when the traditional scoring methods of flexibility (r = .81, k = 228, m = 171, N = 45,991) and originality (rs = .66 and .71, ks = 60 and 102, ms = 49 and 66, Ns = 10,514 and 10,535, respectively) were used. Among the three pairs of correlations, the flexibility-originality pair had the lowest correlation (r = .56, k = 250, m = 161, N = 41,251). Moderator analyses indicated that the averaging approach to aggregation and mixed task modality (i.e., the use of both verbal and figural DT tasks) are useful strategies to improve the discriminant validity of fluency with both flexibility and originality. Specific scoring techniques, such as semantic distance and inverse proportional scoring, improved discriminant validity on originality, and the use of multiple items undermined discriminant validity for flexibility. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved)
Other authorsSee publication -
Harnessing Deliberate Creativity
Darden Business Publishing
This technical note is designed to introduce students and practitioners to the body of work associated with creativity and its applications for professionals and the organizations they lead. Creativity is often seen as an intangible subject, and a half-century of research remains remarkably unknown. This note describes actions that professionals can immediately implement to accelerate creativity in the work place.
Other authorsSee publication -
Engagement on Entrepreneurial Projects as a Direct Metric for New Venture Creation
Global Consortium of Entrepreneurship Centers 2017
The introduction of a new method for measuring student new venture creation directly.
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The Social Mechanism of Supporting Entrepreneurial Projects Beyond the Classroom
ASEE 2017 Conference Proceedings
This 17-page academic research paper explores the shortcomings in conventional university entrepreneurship education offerings from a global literature review and from a local entrepreneurial customer discovery process. The major shortcomings of conventional university entrepreneurship education offerings is that they do not induce the entrepreneurial traits or intention within students, which is a key part of developing founders. Peer influences have been shown to greatly affect these two…
This 17-page academic research paper explores the shortcomings in conventional university entrepreneurship education offerings from a global literature review and from a local entrepreneurial customer discovery process. The major shortcomings of conventional university entrepreneurship education offerings is that they do not induce the entrepreneurial traits or intention within students, which is a key part of developing founders. Peer influences have been shown to greatly affect these two aspects, and we demonstrate the early traction regarding this of our Works in Progress program at the University of Virginia.
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Aspiring Entrepreneurs Should Not Major in Entrepreneurship
Advances in the Study of Entrepreneurship, Innovation and Economic Growth
There seems to be some cognitive dissonance between the rapid growth of entrepreneurship education programs in higher education and the insignificant, if not negative, correlation to new venture creation, especially among the college-aged and recent graduate demographic. Is a bachelor’s degree in entrepreneurship worth it? No, it is argued here that a bachelor’s degree in entrepreneurship is not worth it for a student whose goal is to be an entrepreneur by founding his or her own venture for…
There seems to be some cognitive dissonance between the rapid growth of entrepreneurship education programs in higher education and the insignificant, if not negative, correlation to new venture creation, especially among the college-aged and recent graduate demographic. Is a bachelor’s degree in entrepreneurship worth it? No, it is argued here that a bachelor’s degree in entrepreneurship is not worth it for a student whose goal is to be an entrepreneur by founding his or her own venture for two main reasons. First, the most important part of an entrepreneur is the set of the dispositional traits that enable them to acquire and operationalize any skill or knowledge quickly, and these cannot be learn through instruction of any degree program. Second, a major in entrepreneurship necessarily means concentrating the majority of study on the diverse, practically infinite, set of possible skills and knowledge needed, at the expense of a deep focus on an area of specialized knowledge from which high quality opportunities can be discovered. Almost any other bachelor’s degree program offers more in terms of opportunity discovery. Given these points, almost any other bachelor’s degree is worth more to a student whose goal is to found a new venture, as they allow for the discovery of higher quality opportunities for venture creation.
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WAGiLabs PlayBook: An Idea Incubator for Kids' Ideas that will Change the World!
WAGiLabs is all about play. And ideas. And most importantly... Doing good to help people. When kids play together, their imaginations come together, and new ideas happen! In the WAGiLabs, kids connect with kids (in their community and in distant places) to learn from each other, share ideas, innovate, and make people’s lives better. Through curiosity, connection, and courage, kids can change the world! Learning Objectives: Curiosity: *Discovering your passions (what you love) *“Walking in the…
WAGiLabs is all about play. And ideas. And most importantly... Doing good to help people. When kids play together, their imaginations come together, and new ideas happen! In the WAGiLabs, kids connect with kids (in their community and in distant places) to learn from each other, share ideas, innovate, and make people’s lives better. Through curiosity, connection, and courage, kids can change the world! Learning Objectives: Curiosity: *Discovering your passions (what you love) *“Walking in the shoes of others” (practicing empathy) *Being a detective (exploring your neighborhood, community, the world) *Uncovering needs and problems Connection: *Teaming up with other kids *Comparing and choosing team goals (needs and problems to solve) *Brainstorming solutions *Striving for innovation (thinking out of the box) *Sharing ideas with those in need and those who can help *Responding to feedback, revising ideas *Building prototypes: cooperating, assigning & sharing roles Courage: *Planning a presentation to pitch ideas *Pitching ideas at Guppy Tank. *Turning ideas into actions that will do good *Learning through trial and error *Not giving up when there are problems or obstacles *Selling ideas to get support from others and investment *Establishing a network of kidpreneurs *Playing it forward Kids: *Target age: 8-11 years’ old *Location: anywhere kids want to dream big, do good, get messy, and change the world!
Other authorsSee publication -
Works in Progress: The Social Mechanism of Supporting Entrepreneurial Projects Beyond the Classroom
VentureWell OPEN 2016
We all know it’s hard to teach entrepreneurship. As you scale up your efforts to institutionalize the curriculum, the entire process becomes less personal and individualized. However, at the heart of entrepreneurship is a core ideal of individualism, and the largest successes are due to serendipitous accidents and personal connections. It’s about collisions and density of people. Paul Graham has rebutted the claim that student entrepreneurship is even feasible. Indeed, “student” and…
We all know it’s hard to teach entrepreneurship. As you scale up your efforts to institutionalize the curriculum, the entire process becomes less personal and individualized. However, at the heart of entrepreneurship is a core ideal of individualism, and the largest successes are due to serendipitous accidents and personal connections. It’s about collisions and density of people. Paul Graham has rebutted the claim that student entrepreneurship is even feasible. Indeed, “student” and “entrepreneur” are full-time jobs; being both means tradeoffs, and there’s little outside time. At UVA’s Works in Progress, our approach centers around the Mastermind Principle made famous by Napoleon Hill, which is based off of the idea that you’re the average of the five people with which you spend the most time. We have a built a community of solely founders, the most useful resource for student entrepreneurs, and I’d like to share with everyone our insights.
Other authorsSee publication
Courses
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Creativity Research Practice
CRS 594
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Effectual Entrepreneurship
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Principles in Creative Problem Solving
CRS 559
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Tableau Desktop Fundamentals I, II, and III
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Venture Velocity
GBUS 8500YY
Honors & Awards
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UVA Most Helpful Career Supporter
UVA Career Center
https://career.virginia.edu/commending-faculty-and-staff-students-come-together-honor-their-career-development-supporters
"Of all University of Virginia faculty and staff, is there one individual who you feel has helped you the most with your career development this year?" -
Batten Entrepreneurial Scholar
Batten Institute for Entrepreneurship and Innovation
Awarded to those who exhibit an entrepreneurial spirit, strong leadership skills and a drive for innovation, as well as recognizable background characteristics and goals that meet the entrepreneurship and innovation objectives of the Batten Institute.
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Graduate Student Association Merit-Based Scholarship
Graduate Student Association at SUNY Buffalo State
A scholarship given to students who demonstrate significant academic accomplishments and academic potential for graduate success at SUNY Buffalo State.
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Mary Murdock Creative Spirit Award
Mary Murdock Creative Spirit Scholarship Committee
This award recognizes creative studies students who have demonstrated through action and intent that they:
Have the courage and wisdom to be their authentic selves in the face of both praise and criticism;
Honor the voice of the child in themselves and others;
Actively seek to live in the awe and wonder of everyday creativity;
Actively network with creativity students and cohorts from various years;
Produce in unique ways in their own time and own way;
Are willing champions of…This award recognizes creative studies students who have demonstrated through action and intent that they:
Have the courage and wisdom to be their authentic selves in the face of both praise and criticism;
Honor the voice of the child in themselves and others;
Actively seek to live in the awe and wonder of everyday creativity;
Actively network with creativity students and cohorts from various years;
Produce in unique ways in their own time and own way;
Are willing champions of the creative spirit of others;
Demonstrate energy and commitment to the field and domain; and
Can articulate a future image of how he or she will inspire and nurture the creative spirit in others. -
Excellence in Entrepreneurship Teaching and Pedagogical Innovation Finalist
Global Consortium of Entrepreneurship Centers
This award honors a center that has developed a significant original innovation in entrepreneurship pedagogy. My innovation was the Intentional Design of Peer Influences.
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Coulter Translational Research Grant
UVA-Coulter Translational Research Partnership
Our project received over $200,000 from the UVA-Coulter Translational Research Partnership, a $20M program that funds cutting edge biomedical technologies with the purpose of improving clinical practice. The program is also dedicated to training serial innovators in translational research and commercialization. Support and financing is based on technical merit, clinical impact, strength of team, intellectual property, and likelihood for adoption.
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UVA Entrepreneurship Cup Grand Prize
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Grand prize of $20,000 awarded to our team, out of 200 other student entrepreneur teams.
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La Maison Française Resident
University of Virginia French Language Department
Selected to live in the historic Barringer Mansion at the University of Virginia due to my proficiency with the French language and my deep interest and knowledge of French culture.
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Eagle Scout (42 Merit Badges, 3 Palms)
Boy Scouts of America
Eagle Scout is the highest achievement or rank attainable in the Boy Scouting program of the Boy Scouts of America (BSA). The designation "Eagle Scout" has a long history since its founding over one hundred years ago. Only a small percentage of Boy Scouts are granted this rank after a lengthy review process. The requirements necessary to achieve this rank take years to fulfill. Since its founding, the Eagle Scout rank has been earned by more than two million young men.
The Eagle scout…Eagle Scout is the highest achievement or rank attainable in the Boy Scouting program of the Boy Scouts of America (BSA). The designation "Eagle Scout" has a long history since its founding over one hundred years ago. Only a small percentage of Boy Scouts are granted this rank after a lengthy review process. The requirements necessary to achieve this rank take years to fulfill. Since its founding, the Eagle Scout rank has been earned by more than two million young men.
The Eagle scout must demonstrate Scout Spirit, an ideal attitude based upon the Scout Oath and Law, service, and leadership. This includes an extensive service project that the Scout plans, organizes, leads, and manages. Eagle Scouts are presented with a medal and a badge that visibly recognizes the accomplishments of the Scout. Additional recognition can be earned through Eagle Palms, awarded for completing additional tenure, leadership, and merit badge requirements.
Test Scores
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GMAT: 800
Score: 800
Entry test for MBA program, out of 800 possible points.
Languages
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French
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Organizations
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Creative Education Foundation
Board Member
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Beta Theta Pi
Ritual Chair, Chorister
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📢 Attention JHU student entrepreneurs! Fall 2024 accelerator applications are open now. I am excited to lead the Fuel Accelerator again this year.…
📢 Attention JHU student entrepreneurs! Fall 2024 accelerator applications are open now. I am excited to lead the Fuel Accelerator again this year.…
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